Richard Van Aernam Vitz (1913 - 1944)

Regarding Richard's WWII services, I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help. My memory of what my mother told me was that he actually was only in France for a short while. I was sure that she told me that he volunteered (and you know the advice about that kind of action!) for a mission shortly after arriving and was killed on that mission. I'm guessing the Bronze Star would have been for his volunteering for that mission and the Purple Heart would have been for having been killed during that mission. I'm guessing that based on reading about Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Wikipedia. My mother also told me that John Richard, was orphaned when he was 8 while riding in the backseat of a car with his mother and stepfather in the front seat and they had a head on collision with a truck that fell over on them, trapping John Richard in the back. So, if Grandmother Addie Vitz died in 1931 when Margaret was 17 and a junior, Richard was 18 and a senior who got married that same school year and if John Richard was 8 when orphaned, he would have had to have been born in 1936. I'm not sure these timelines add up.